• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, March 14, 2018

There’s an often-overlooked tool in your toolbox,  an element that can bring massive returns when executed correctly: partner marketing.

Marketers fail to make use of this tool for two reasons.  First, it’s a long play.  Partner marketing requires an investment of time before it bears fruit.  Second, it’s hard and requires focus.  Partner marketing is like native advertising, where you have to learn about the channels at your disposal and customize approaches for each one.

Though many companies have  varying definitions for what a partner is, in my view it’s either:

-- A corporate partner, ranging from investment to distribution.
-- A sponsorship partner, or someone you are specifically spending money with.
-- An execution partner, ranging from your agency (and its holding company) to law firms, and more.
-- A channel partner, who becomes an avenue for you to distribute your product or service.

Your definition also depends on whether your partners have subsegments that also may be valuable customers.  In my case I am a B2B marketer, but I take a consumerized approach.  I am selling a tool used for meetings, and every company we are involved with has meetings. Not only do I want to reach the customers of my partners, but also the employees in these same companies, because they are our target audience, too.  

In the case of a CPG brand — maybe someone selling a new snack bar — your partners are also your customers.  If you work with a large holding company agency, that holding company has up to 4,000 employees, each of whom snack and are your target audience.

Recognizing these partners as channels to reach customers is one step, but the hardest step is understanding what to do to speak to them.  This is where your partner marketing has to be less prescriptive and more descriptive.  You need to engage your partners and understand the mutual value you offer.  

How can your product be positioned contextually and authentically to the customers and employees of these partners you work with, without seeming to take advantage of the relationship?   For example, is it unethical to negotiate upfront with an agency to say that in order to win your business, they have to buy x amount of your product over the course of a year?  The CPG company mentioned before could not have an agency buy 5,000 cases of its energy bar in exchange for the contract as AOR.  That would be unethical.  

However, once you’ve chosen an agency, it’s certainly fair to ask, “How can we expose your employees to our energy bar and see what they think?” Or, “Can we set up a tasting for our bar and provide you with some samples for your offices over the course of the year?”  This is logical and actually in place with many agencies.  Just look at the agency relationships for Coca-Cola or Pepsi: What beverage do you think they have on site and in their refrigerators?

Sometimes partner marketing is about volume and broad messaging, but other times it’s about sparking the flame of viral marketing.  Taste tests and spreading the word about a product through the hallways of your partners can be just as valuable as seeding content online or pushing messaging out through social.  In fact, you can tie the two together and probably get even more bang for the proverbial buck.  

Is your team overlooking partner marketing, or are you simply offering a “Chinese menu” of options for them to choose from?  That menu can only take you so far. You have to find time to dive in deeper, working with your partners to come up with ideas that would be interesting for both parties.  

If you take the time, allocate the resources, and enter the relationship from a more descriptive perspective upfront rather than a prescriptive approach that only focuses on certain elements, I think you’ll find significantly more success in the long run.